Thursday, February 25, 2010

I like one pot meals, for when I can make soemthing to eat in a jiffy. No need for another curry or daal. And I love kids for eating without hesitating such meals.
Whenever I am in a hurry and don't have much time, I turn to such type of meals and when there are lots of tomatoes at home :).
There are different way of making tomato rice. I don't make puree of the tomatoes, they anyway get cooked so why another extra step. I cut out one more step by using whole garam masala instead of grinding them into a powder. It is flavorful both ways isn't it!!
Just remember to cook white rice and cool it too before making tomato rice out of it.
I made this for the whole family, so I made a lot.

Cook and cool the rice. Use a big pot which can hold the whole amount of rice when it has to be mixed with the tomato masala. In that pot, heat oil and add all the masala stuff and fry till brown (add the curry leaves towards the end). Now add the cashews and fry till brown. Then add the onion, green chillies and saute. Then add the ginger-garlic paste and saute before adding the turmeric powder, chopped tomatoes and green peas. When the tomatoes are totally cooked, they will turn into a paste. Add half the coriander leaves and mix. Then add the cooked rice and mix with salt. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with plain yogurt or raita or any chutney. Enjoy!!!

I usually don't make anything special for lunch for my self. I generally eat whatever is there leftover in the fridge or make myself a leftover sandwich. Only on those days where I feel like eating something different I cook for myself or create something for myself. Today was one of those days that I made something for me!!I like pasta salads. I cannot give up on them. If I see them, I have to try them. But mainly I like vegetarian salads. I like the plain ones with only veggies, lemon juice, pepper and pasta or the creamy ones. I don't mind that they have mayo in it.Like always I never have what I require at home period!!! So I 'created' this with what I could find in my pantry. No mayo, so substituted it with sour cream. corn with baby corn, added spinach, spanish olives, chick peas and black beans with red onion, tomato and red bell pepper. Everything with a touch of black pepper, red pepper flakes, parmesan cheese, a dash of onion powder and garlic powder, and a touch of parsley flakes and basil flakes. tying everything together with lemon juice.I tried to make it on the healthier side by using whole grain pasta and low fat sour cream. I will call this semi-homemade, cos I used frozen spinach and dried parsley and basil flakes. And be sure to adjust or add or minus anything according to your taste.

Mix everything in a bowl, and I mean everything, all the ingredients. Enjoy it just like that or refrigerate or chill it. Serve yourself and anyone else and Enjoy!!! :) , while I enjoy mine.........This can be pre-made and enjoyed later. Can be enjoyed on a picnic or lunch at work!!!

Tip: After refrigerating it, if you think it looks grainy (thats because of the cheese) add a tbsp of milk and mix.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Methi or Menthi koora or Fenugreek leaves are used as a herb or in whole for curries or the seeds as a spice. The leaves are used all over India in many different dishes. They even taste good with combination of other veggies. Dried leaves are also used as a herb to flavor dishes and its called 'Kasuri Methi'.
I use Menthi koora whenever available to make curries or daal too.
Almost all the daals are made in a similar fashion. There are two ways that I make daal at home. One when I have time and other when I don't have time. Though making it the longer way always tastes more better. I call it long but its easy, not difficult at all. You can make it this way too when you have extra plain daal leftover too. Extra daal, ya I keep some extra plain daal in the fridge so that I can use it couple of days later for making quick daal or pappu kattu or sambar.
So to make daal when you don't have time is to put everything including the toor daal and methi leaves (any other veggie for that matter), along with chilli powder, turmeric, onion and green chillies into the pressure cooker and cook till done. Then add the tamarind juice and add tempering. Thats the easy way.
The other way is as follows:

The second way or the one I do when I have time is like this.
Cook the daal in a pressure cooker till cooked.
In a different pot, add some water and add the methi leaves, chopped onions and green chillies. Saute until cooked and then add the tamarind juice. Cook for couple of minutes. Now add the cooked daal into the same pot after lowering the heat or it will splutter. If you think its too thick, add some water. Don't worry you can cook away the water later. After mixing properly prepare for tempering. In a tempering pot or small pan, heat oil and add the crushed garlic. When they start to brown add the urad daal. When that starts to brown, add the mustard seeds and jeera. Let them splutter before adding the broken red chillies and curry leaves. Now add this tempering to the daal and mix. Let cook for 5 minutes till it bubbles away. Then you can stop the heat. Serve with steaming rice, with ghee, or with roti or chapathi. Enjoy!!!

This is one of my favortites. I like beets. Tho maybe I don't like eating them raw, but I like eating it pickeled or in a fry or pulusu(sweet-sour tangy tamarind gravy). Making beetroot fry like this is more common in my house. No one will have another say in it!!...
On top of it, beets are good for you. They have lot of red pigment called betanin, which protects against oxidative stress, so the wiki says...Its also an rich in anti-oxidants just like the good for you fruits like strawberries, blueberries etc.,.
The leaves of beets are also eaten, they have a nice big red vein like chard and spinach beet.
The red pigment in beet is also harvested to use in other foods to intensify the color. And also don't get scared when you start seeing everything pink a day or two later, if you understand what I mean!!! :)
This fry has dried coconut in it, which makes it tastes even better. You can use fresh shredded coconut too, but I didn't have that at home :)

After washing and peeling the beets. Grate them or shred them. I used the food processor to that job for me. It just does it faster than me grating them on the small grater :).
In a pan, heat oil and add the urad daal. When they start browning, add the mustard seeds and jeera. When they splutter, add the red chillies and curry leaves. Now add the chopped onion and green chillies.

When thr onion starts to brown or turns translucent, add the shredded beet and saute it. Fry it until its cooked. You can fry it even more to get texture and look you like. Now add the coconut powder and mix it even more until everything is well mixed. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve with hot rice or roti. Enjoy!!!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Oh how I miss getting the chinese noodles from the roadside shop when we were back in India. When we were young we loved it. It was a special whenever we had any get togethers. I am sure all my apartment friends, my brother and sister remember where we used to have our get togethers and what we used to eat. We used to get it from 'Herbies' right! and eat it on our terrace! oh what fun!!!
We can never duplicate making that type either. Never get them right.
The first thing is the type of noodles. I have tried every kind of noodles, from angel hair pasta to Ching's noodles to anyother noodles you find. They all taste good but never the right one.

I am sure many of you have tried the Indian-Chinese style Maggi noodles. I like these because of their shape and texture. They are more flatter and thinner than the regular kind. They are easy to cook, but I like to jazz mine up with more veggies, egg, sesame oil etc.,.and my favorite baby corn. I like it spicier too.
These packs come with 2 pouches, 1 - maggi masala powder, 2 - flavor oil. Save them cos we are going to use them too.
We usually like eating it plain. Sometimes I serve it along side any kind of manchurian.
This recipe serves 4-5 people (depending on how much they eat ofcourse).

The noodles cook very quick, so I don't cook them before hand. I heat the oil and put the water to boil in another pot at the same time. So by the time the veggies get cooked the water would have boiled. I drop the noodles in and within few seconds stop the heat. I let them sit in the hot water till they separate. There is always a chance to over cook them, so keep an eye and once they separate, drain the water and add to the cooked veggies.
The next part goes side by side with the first part.
Heat flavor oil and sesame oil in a wok. Add the egg and saute for it to become small pieces. Add the garlic, onion and green chillies. saute for couple of minutes and add the carrots and baby corn (and any other veggies). Saute with salt. Cook for another 3-4 minutes before adding the cabbage. Add some more salt and let cook for couple of minute, till you think the cabbage is almost cooked. By this time your noodles should be cooked and drained.
Add the masala pouches and stir with the cabbage. Now add the noodles and mix everything together.
Let cook for another couple of minutes before adding the green onions. Now its ready to be served. Enjoy!!!

Tip: Dont let the noodles get over cooked, because when you add it to the dish, it will get mushy. Even if you think they are underdone in the water, its Ok cos they will get cooked again in the dish. And make sure there isn't much water from the veggies in the wok or the veggies are overdone before adding the noodles, it will make it mushy too.
If you think its too much oil, well whats Chinese food without oil!!!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Simple, easy bajjilu or fritters for a cold, snowy evening. This time we didn't escape the snow...we got hit and we got hit somewhat hard. Well, I say somewhat because I have seen more snow dumped on us than the past storm. I say that because I think we NewEnglanders have lost the feel for the snow. When lot of it falls, they cannot take it, and when less falls, they miss it!!!
So that evening I felt like eating bajjilu. If in India, and it rains I want mirchi bajji, but well had to settle with this. Lot of settling I have to do right :) (in life).
This is also a good way to make my kids eat some veggies instead of some unhealthy snack. But unhealthy for us to eat a lot of these deep fried stuff. Maybe we can get away with eating a few...maybe...
Any type of Veggies can be used to make fritters or bajjis.
I chose potato cause I don't have to stress on my kids to eat it...they will eat it I know :)
And bell pepper, cheap substitute for mirchi bajjis right...I just like bell pepper :)

Heat oil.
Mix all the ingredients (except for oil!!) into a batter. The batter should be thick, should be able to coat the veggies. Dip the veggies, one by one into the batter and deep fry to golden brown.
Remove onto a paper napkin to drain the excess oil. Serve hot. Enjoy with tomato sauce or spicy ketchup.
Can also be enjoyed with coriander-mint chutney or tamarind chutney :) Enjoy!!!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Taking both vegetarian and non-vegetarian people into consideration, we (me and my husband who cooks!!!) wanted to make a veg dish and a non-veg dish.

Both spicy, something easy to make and we came up with tikka idea. He first wanted to make only chicken tikka but later added the paneer too.
And he came up with the grand idea of grilling it outside on the deck in 30 degrees F temperature. I simply dont know how he did it. I should have taken a picture, I missed the opportunity. Him wearing the big brown snow jacket (which he rarely wears), wearing boots and cap and grilling out on the snow (or ice) filled deck!!!
So anyways they came out good, tho the paneer spent some extra time on the grill :).

The masala paste is semi-homemade and is the same for both chicken and paneer.
He added the grilled veggies like onions and red bell pepper later on to the dish.

Mix all the masala ingredients together in a bowl, taste the salt before adding the chicken or the paneer. Marinate for atleast 2 hours before grilling on skewers. Paneer take lesser time to cook than the chicken, so dont put them together. He grilled the paneer first and after removing that he put the chicken on the grill. Alternatively, this can be even put in oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until done or shallow fried on stove top with some oil. The veggies can be done the same way too. Serve hot. Enjoy!!!

Tip: I always like to taste the marinade before adding the meat into it to check for salt and spiciness, not after adding the meat!!!
Marinate the Chicken and Paneer separately so that both veg people and non-veg people can enjoy!!!

Well, this exactly is not a superbowl party recipe. This is the regular fish fry we make at home.
My husband wanted a finger food item with fish and nothing more easier and faster to do than this, so we opted to make this item.
This like many others recipes which I blog are variations of my Mom's recipes which I am transformed to make them easier for me to make.
In India you would get nice fleshy fishes which taste good with this recipe, but here all the skinless and boneless, have to settle with that.
Anyways, I have made fish fry using same masala on almost all kind of fishes we get here like tilapia, catfish, cod etc.,. For now I made it using salmon. When choosing the fish, choose the pieces which are thicker for the fry.

Wash the fish pieces and keep aside.
Put all the ingredients in a grinder and make paste using little water (even the onion and green chillies).
Taste to see if you added enough salt to the masala before adding it to the fish. Make sure the fish pieces are properly covered with the masala and leave covered in the refrigerater for 1 hour atleast (you can take it out sooner, but if left little longer, the fish get marinated well). Fry them in a shallow pan with just enough oil to brown them. Garnish with onion and chopped coriander leaves. Serve with plain rice or biryani or chappathi or roti.:) Enjoy!!!

Tip: You can prepare the masala way ahead of time and save it in th fridge. You can also marinate the fish way ahead and fry them later. Only thing is, if the fish is left in the masala for very long time the fish gets tough or rubbery like. So maximum not more than 2-3 hours.

So I was going to make baked ziti with lots of veggies and all...but it ended up like this. First of all I didnot have any ziti in my pantry. Second of all I didn't have any broccoli or spinach or zucchini which I had intended to put in together with the ziti as veggies...hmmm and third of all it was snowing and I had a cake to take care of and no time to go grocery shopping. What happens to all the stuff when you need them and why don't I remember to get them when I do go grocery shopping!! hmph.....

Anyways I had enough Ragu sauce (chunky, tomato-onion and garlic one, vegetarian) and whole grain penne (I think 1 pound box, I should remember to check). So I decided, no veggies, thats Ok, whole grain pasta is good and healthy with veggie Ragu...and some sour cream and the cheeses (this too I had only 2 kinds to put in it and 1 kind to put on top blahh...) I had to settle with this...

With or with out veggies, I was sure the cheese will make it enough yummy...:) and everyone might like it :| hopefully...

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Drain the pasta and mix it together with more than half of the Ragu sauce, sour cream, red pepper flakes, italian seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, Mozzarella and Provolone cheeses. Put it in a oven proof baking dish. Pour the rest of the Ragu sauce on the top and sprinkle the 1/2 cup parmesan cheese on the top. Bake at 350 for about 30 min to 40 min. Serve hot with some sprinkled parmesan cheese. Serve hot. Enjoy!!!

Well in the end it did come out good and tasted good too. Everyone enjoyed it :)!!

Puffs were a everyday thing when we were in India. I am sure many can relate to that. When in college, going out with friends, going to bakery, eating puffs, burgers, cutlets, pani poori, bhel, chaat and pastries...hmmm those memories....

After coming here and seeing the puffs don't mean the same as the ones in India, I am sure everyone started experimenting with the pastry puff sheets. Well I did too. Making puffs with these ready-made sheets is not only easy and they do taste good too. Only thing I feel that the texture is little soft and is not as crispy as they are in India. But still something is better than nothing.

I make puffs out of the pastry sheets from time to time. Curry puffs, egg puffs and chicken puffs are something that I make. Out of one pastry sheet I get about 6 puffs. So these are kind of big. For the Superbowl party I wanted something small like finger food. Keeping that in mind I made these mini-bites.
I made them once before so this was the second time I was making them. They suited the purpose of finger food :) for all that I cared...and a lot of pieces out of 2 sheets works out better too..cutting out the time.

Ingredients:

1 box of Pillsbury Pastry puff sheets (1 box contains 2 sheets, found in the frozen section, has to be thawed at room temperature for 40 min. minimum)
little bit all purpose flour (maida) for rolling the sheets out

In a pan, heat oil and add chopped onions. Saute until translucent. Add ginger-garlic paste and saute. Now add the chopped carrots and peas. Fry for couple minute with little salt. Then add the shredded cabbage and saute again. Now add the chilli powder, turmeric, and garam masala and some more salt. Saute until everything is cooked properly. Remove from heat and cool.

Assembling the pastry puff:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.
When the puff sheet is thawed, remove slowly and cut into 3 parts (its usually folded into 3 parts, so I cut along the lines into 3 equal parts).
Put some flour on the rolling pin and the board and roll out 1 cut part little bigger than it actually is, like if its 3 inches wide, make it 4 inches wide, not much just a little.

Now put the filling in the center and dab water on one long edge of the sheet. Fold the other end over to tuck inside and the water dabbed edge covering it and sticking it together. Now cut it into desired size pieces. I cut it into 1-1 1/2 inch size pieces.

Lay them on a baking sheet lined with aluminium foil and bake at 375 degrees until they brown on the top. It takes about 15-20 min. Serve hot with ketchup or spicy tomato sauce. Enjoy!!! :)

Tip: Let them curry filling cook fully with no more water left in the pan and also let it cool completly before assembling it, otherwise it can make the puff sheet soggy and the sheet will not bake into many layers.
If you have any leftover curry, use it in a sandwich!!! :)

Friday, February 12, 2010

I love Nachos. My kids and husband love nachos. Its the one of the best movie theater foods. I like the thinner corn nachos. Hot melty cheese is good, but I don't like it all the times. I rather eat it with salsa, sour cream or any dip. But jalapenos are a must.

Nachos have to go in combo with salsa or dips right?..I used to love eating nachos at "On the Borders' restuarant, but they closed down near us. I liked their salsa too. At home we usually eat the Tostitos salsa.

This recipe is an inspiration from the short trip we took with our friends last month to Mohegan Sun casino. After a day of driving and playing with the kids at the kid's arcade we were hungry, so we ate at the food court. They had this and we all shared 2 plates of it minus the cheese tho.
So I tried to duplicate it home and was successful. It is simple and has lots to veggies and taste yummy, crunchy and spicy.

What I did before taking them over to my friends house was mixing the chopped spring onions with the shredded lettuce, mixing the tomatoes with chopped cilantro leaves and 1 tbsp of lemon juice and mixing the corn with chopped red onion and 1 tbsp lemon juice and a dash of black pepper.
At my friend's place we mixed everything up in a bowl including the shredded cheese and jalapenos and put the sour cream and the guacamole dip to the side so that everyone can dip the nachos in and enjoy.

Tip: Alternatively you can leave everything in a separate bowls and people can take what they like onto their nachos.

Past Super bowl was one day in confusion for us...The guys didn't want us or the kids around while they were watching the game and we didn't know how else and what else to do..But as usual all ended well with us spending together in the ' same house' atleast and us trying to keep the kids away from the guys ;).

Everything is on the table, ready to be served, I am still opening the Nacho stuff...

Me and my husband cooked the food or rather finger foods for the party. The host of the party also had some food going on and all together we ended up with lots of food including pizza. We ate a lot too. I guess super bowl is like that...you continuosly keep eating all through the game. In the end we probably ended up with couple of pounds too.:)

I have been kind of busy this and I couldn't get to posting this till now. Well we didn't get much snow again. We skipped it and passed it on to the southern states. But the temps aren't any better either. But still my husband braved (touche) the chilly temps and grilled his part of the cooking outside in the cold. He grilled the paneer into paneer tikka (and burned it a little) and chicken in chicken tikka (this came out good). I will blog those recipes after I am finished with mine. He even fried the fish, but this at home with my home made masala.
I made Spinach - onion pakodis or fritters, Veg puffs mini bites (to keep in theme of finger foods) and Nachos with the works.

Spinach - Onion Pakodis or Fritters

This is a very simple recipe and can be made with in 1/2 hour. Kids also like eating them, who doesn't like pakodis. This can we made using fresh spinach or frozen spinach for a semi- homemade touch :). I didn't have much time and this was the last thing I was making before I had to get ready and get the kids ready to go to the party, so I used frozen spinach which was ready in my freezer.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. If using fresh spinach use the water for making it into a batter. If using frozen spinach, it usually has enough water and you don't have add any more. The batter should be kind of thick and not runny. Thick like a roti dough or chapathi dough. It won't be smooth like the chapathi dough, but it has to be thick. Drop little by little into hot oil carefully and fry them till golden brown. Remove onto a paper napkin to drain out the excess oil. Serve with coriander-mint chutney or spicy or plain tomato ketchup. Enjoy!!!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Another easy recipe for cold winter nights. This dish has lot of ginger in it, which feels good when you are down with a cold or a cough. This dish goes well with chapathi, roti or rice. You can make this dish with any firm eggplants. I made it with the small ones.

Heat oil in a pan. Add the onions and curry leaves and saute them till they are translucent. Add the chilli paste and saute that too. Now add the eggplant and saute. Add salt and grated ginger. Now add the chilli powder and turmeric powder. Cook until the eggplant is cooked properly but not mushy. Garnish with coriander leaves. Enjoy!!!